American Expediting, the Media-based logistics company that built its business on rushing critical shipments to healthcare and life sciences clients, is shutting down after failing to secure the financing it needed to stay afloat, reports Nishanth Bhargava for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
The company will lay off all 86 employees at its headquarters at 1400 North Providence Road by the end of June, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
“After investing significant resources to support the business and carefully evaluating all viable options, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations,” the company said in a statement posted to its website.
In its filing, American Expediting cited “unforeseen business circumstances,” explaining that lenders informed ownership on June 1 that they would not extend additional financing or approve a debt restructuring, a move that could have cleared the way for outside investors to inject fresh capital.
Two days later, on June 3, the company broke the news to its Media workforce.
It marks an abrupt end for a business that spent four decades growing from a local courier into a national operation.
Founded in Philadelphia in 1983, American Expediting built itself into a time-critical logistics provider, with forward stocking warehouses and flexible stocking locations spread across the United States.
Private equity firm AEA Investors acquired the company in 2019, and it expanded further through acquisitions, including Crosstown Inc. and City Express.
The shutdown adds to a string of major logistics layoffs that have rippled across Pennsylvania this year.
The Philadelphia Business Journal has the full breakdown of American Expediting’s financial unraveling and what it signals for the region’s logistics sector.
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